Chael Sonnen is taking his boxing match with Anderson Silva very seriously.
Sonnen faces former rival and ex-UFC champ Silva in a 216-pound boxing match Saturday in São Paulo, Brazil.
Sonnen will look to avenge one of the most heartbreaking moments of his MMA career – a late submission loss to Silva in their middleweight title fight at UFC 117 in August 2010. Sonnen was up four rounds on all three judges’ scorecards, although he would later test positive for elevated levels of testosterone. Sonnen lost their title-fight rematch at UFC 148 by second-round TKO.
“There is nothing about this where I go, ‘Boxing is not quite my style,'” Sonnen said on his ESPN show “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Daniel Cormier. “I’m going out there to beat this man, to fix my life, or I am going to go the rest of my days looking at my career as a miserable fail.”
Sonnen and Silva engaged in one of the most heated rivalries in UFC history. Their first title fight will join the UFC Hall of Fame later in June.
Although Sonnen is flattered to be Silva’s farewell fight, “The Bad Guy” will put respect aside when they lace up the gloves.
“To be the one to get to sign off and close out his career, there is a certain appreciation,” Sonnen said. “But, before I go too nice guy, on you, the rules, starting with No. 1, is we damage each other. I know people like to be friendly and like to say we made up. They love to use the word ‘respect.’
“I will adhere to it, too because it seems like the gentlemanly thing to do, but I’m going to go damage him, which is what I’ve agreed to do. I’m going to put my body in there because he asked. He could have gotten any opponent he wanted. He apparently still wants to do damage to me. So, to act like everything is behind us would just be insincere.”
